Viva La France! Part Trois

Friday May 2: The Loire Valley continued...

We decided to stay in the Loire Valley in the morning because we wanted to check out another castle and see a winery. Our next castle was Chateau d'Azay le Rideau. It was built by a French finance minister and when the King saw how elaborate and expensive it became-he confiscated it. The inside of the castle was much better kept than the prior castle because this castle was a national monument and one that the French government maintains.

It's all about symmetry for the French-the view down the walk.

A castle is a castle is a castle...

The family seal above the fireplace: this castle was really well maintained. Some of the tapestries looked like they were practically new even though they were over 100 years old.

Mom, Dad and the castle.

After the castle, we headed to a winery in a nearby town. I wasn't feeling great so I stayed in the car while the rest of the family went to a wine cave where they age the wine. They ended up with these caves when they were digging out stones to build the castle. They all said it was a great day (and they bought lots of wine!).

Then we all piled into our cars and headed to Brittany to try to get to Saint Michel (a famous Abbey) before it closed...we made it and the pictures will be up shortly!

Viva La France: Part Duo

Thursday May 1: The Loire Valley

On the grounds of the first castle we visited, Chenonceau there was a 12th century farm. The buildings were covered with these purple flowers that I think my mom said were wisteria. They smelled like bubblegum. It was beautiful!

Nora stopped to smell the flowers...
The castle itself was built over the river for one of the kings mistresses. It was really crowded (even though we didn't get there until late afternoon). Nora and I took the audio tour which had some interesting facts...like that the hall that stretches over the river used to house soldiers in WWII and they used to fish in the river out the windows.
The gardens were along one side of the river-done in the French style, very symmetrical.

We spent that night in Tours, which was a really nice town. The hotel recommended a small little square with great old buildings and restaurants to eat dinner.
Stay tuned for more of the Loire Valley and then Brittany on the coast!

Viva La France!

I realize it's been way too long since I've posted anything-but I figure nothing like a 10 day trip to France to get a person back on the blogging wagon. So, I'll go through our trip posting two days at a time. That will give me a chance to put lots of pictures for each day.

The real planning for the trip got down and dirty at O'Hare airport while we waited for our flight (which was delayed due to a leak in the plane's kitchen). My dad had a huge map of the whole country of France spread out and Harry was reading the driving directions. We had plans to head straight to Confolens to pick up Nora as soon as we landed in Paris and rented the cars.

Once we landed, it took us about two hours to rent our cars and get our luggage. We passed right through customs without any questions because we were told there was "no staff". I think it was lunchtime so there was no one working the customs desk. In any case, it took a really long time to rent our cars (they were "big" by European standards...about the size of a Toyota Camry), both Harry and my dad got Renault Laguna cars that were brand new. We lost Harry on the Peripherique (the road that goes around Paris) and my dad, mom and I decided to take the toll roads (which was the quickest way) to get to Nora. The scenery got prettier and prettier as we headed away from Paris. Nora's town was about 6ish hours. We stopped at an "oasis" along the toll road for some food and gas. The oasis' in France are really nice. You can get fresh cafe and glasses of wine and most had bakeries. I could've spent a long time checking out all the goodies. They also had any kind of ham sandwich you could imagine (the French love their jambon).
We arrived in Confolens before dark and Harry arrived about 45 minutes later and Nora had ideas for dinner. There was a restaurant in town that is owned by a British couple that just opened. Nora befriended the couple and spent a lot of time there with them so we headed there for dinner. They were delightful and it was a great first dinner in France (I had mushroom risotto). The restaurant is below and a picture of Confolens is above.

Mom and Dad and Harry spent the night in town in a small hotel and I stayed with Nora in her apartment (which was on the grounds of the high school). A picture of Mom and Nora along the river in Confolens before we headed out to our next town Tours (with a stop in Poitiers...where Nora lived with Ben in the fall). Mom stepped in caca de chein (dog poo) along the banks...which Nora and I thought very humorous....

A stop along the way at an idyllic French village. The French countryside really looks like everything you've imagined-the buildings are amazing.




Next up....Tours and the castles...